Financial Inclusion in the Digital Era: Communicative Practices in Organizing Facebook Live Transactions

Abstract

This study investigates the communicative practices that characterize Facebook Live selling and buying transactions—commonly referred to as Facebook Live selling—and examines their role in advancing digital financial inclusion. Grounded in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, the research explores how sellers and buyers engage in patterned, real-time interactions—such as item claiming, product descriptions, transaction confirmations, and payment verification—to facilitate online commercial exchanges. By attending to the sequential organization of talk and turn-taking, the study demonstrates how social actions in live selling are organized, interpreted, and made intelligible to participants. These communicative practices not only enable smooth transaction processes but also serve as mechanisms for fostering trust, enhancing accessibility, and promoting financial participation in digitally mediated settings. The findings suggest that financial inclusion is not merely the outcome of technological access but is actively achieved through structured communicative routines that orient users to informal financial engagement. In doing so, the study offers a communication-centered understanding of how digital financial inclusion is constructed in everyday interactions within emerging online marketplaces. This aligns closely with the goals of development communication, which emphasizes the strategic use of communication processes and media to promote social and economic development. By highlighting how communication itself serves as infrastructure for participation, trust, and digital engagement, the study affirms that development efforts must go beyond technological solutions to consider how people use talk and interaction to navigate and reshape financial realities in marginalized or informal contexts.